He grew into legend, this exultant young giant whom historians call Prester John, the blond, gray-eyed Christian knight, swordsman of fabled prowess, who roused the nomadic hordes of the waste country in a great crusade to capture the Holy Land. Prester John’s bloody quest for power in the name of God ranks with those of Marco Polo and Genghis Khan. Gardner F. Fox, historian extraordinary, now identifies the fabulous Prester John as Sir John of Lincoln, a Knight Templar out of England, whose love for an Eastern princess, Shirzade, led him to glory.

This great novel of the twelfth century echoes the barbarism, ecstasy, and cruelty of the time when men proudly gave their lives as monuments to their faith.